NBC Announces Their Own Download Model

Remember when network television used to be free? You know what I'm talking about, those bygone days before iTunes episode downloads and DVD boxsets, when satellites would beam broadcasts into our homes, for little more than the price of half an hour of your life and the going rate for 30 minutes of electricity?

Three weeks after dissing Apple hard, NBC is introducing a system that will, at least temporarily, invoke the original spirit of network broadcasts, offering free downloads of popular programs like Heroes and The Tonight Show a week after their initial broadcasts. Commercials will be embedded in the downloads, and, like those dark pre-Tivo days, will not be skippable.

"With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment," Vivi Zigler, NBC digital's executive vice president told The New York Times.

Maybe I'm being cynical here, but I would argue that consumers have always wanted control--it's just that, until more recently, media provides haven't had the technology and as a result the obligation to provide them with it. It's not that that initial desire for control has increased as much as the realization on the part of providers like NBC that, if they don't increase control, they'll quickly lose footing to new, more customizable innovations. But I digress.

Testing on NBC Direct is set to begin next month, with a full rollout in November. Downloads will be available to Windows users--after seven days, the downloads will expire. The free part is also likely a limited thing. NBC has announced plans to launch their own pay service by the middle of next year, thereby "eliminate[ing] the middle man" [read: Amazon and iTunes].

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